Hartford Courant: CT Politics

Green Party Candidates For State Senate And House

By Monica Polanco, mpolanco@courant.com
Updated: 5:11 PM 5/30/2010

The Connecticut Green Party is running four candidates for statewide seats and seats in the General Assembly. They include a youth counselor, a retired guidance counselor and a dual contender for state comptroller and the state Senate's 33rd District

"I think the overarching theme is they're average citizens," said Tim McKee, party spokesman and member of its national committee. "I think they're going to try to talk about important issues: the economy, certainly social justice issues and clean government."

Colin Bennett

Colin Bennett, 30, of Westbrook, said he's running as a placeholder for comptroller, but is focusing on his campaign for the 33rd Senate District, which includes the lower Connecticut River Valley and towns along Long Island Sound.

Bennett ran as a Green Party candidate for comptroller in 2006 and for state Senate in the 33rd District in 2008. During both of those elections, Bennett received enough votes — 1 percent of all votes cast — to earn his party an automatic ballot line for both seats during the Nov. 2 election.

Bennett, like all of the Green Party candidates campaigning for state and legislative seats, said he wants to give voters "a choice beyond the traditional Democrat or Republican."

"It really should be a citizens' legislature … where people who care … are making decisions that affect the state," he said.

His priorities are job growth, improving education and ramping up the state's clean energy economy.

Bennett commutes to his job as a sustainability outreach coordinator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Ruthann Johnson

Ruthann "Rae" Johnson, 40, of Middletown, is seeking to unseat Paul Doyle, a Democrat who is serving his second term representing the 9th Senate District. Johnson also would compete against Republican Dom Mazzoccoli, a former Newington mayor and state representative.

But first, Johnson, a petitioning candidate, must collect 476 signatures to earn a spot on the ballot.

The political newcomer ran unsuccessfully for mayor in Middletown last year as part of the Realistic Balance Party. A married mother of two, she is a children's theater teacher and a counselor at a group home.

She said she wants to seek alternate sources of energy, encourage job growth and ensure that schoolchildren are treated as individuals.

"There needs to be open communication … so that we're sure that our children are being treated fairly and receiving whatever they need to be successful," she said.

Ben Wojan

Ben Wojan, 92, of Meriden, is running for the 84th House District. The former school guidance counselor said he's semi-retired, managing 60 acres of woodland for his children.

Wojan, a former Green Party candidate for the West Hartford Town Council, said he's working on a book about the brain-damaging effects of vaccination.

"I'll start writing it after the election," he said.

Wojan is a former Democrat, Republican and member of A Connecticut Party, which was founded by former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

Wojan listed a dozen ideas he'd like to propose if elected, including requiring all municipalities to offer school vouchers, giving senior citizens a 50 percent discount on local and state fees and legalizing medical marijuana.

"I think I have a more realistic idea of what needs to be done," he said.

Nicholas Payne

Nicholas Payne, 60, of New Milford, is running for the 67th House District. An Englishman, Payne has lived in Connecticut for 31 years and is a consulting and electronics engineer.

Payne said he began studying U.S. drug policy after someone fatally shot his daughter, Rebecca Payne, two years ago. The murder of the 22-year-old senior at Northeastern University in Boston remains unsolved.

"It seems likely that it was a murder in the drug business," Nicholas Payne said. "Someone came to murder her by mistake. She was not involved in drugs."

Payne said the current drug policy "is a waste of time and money."

Payne said he thinks marijuana should be legalized and that heroin and cocaine should be legally controlled as part of supervised medical treatment for addicts.

"All these things would mean that drug users would have access to drugs that are not contaminated," he said. "It should keep drug users off the street."

Payne said his proposal would also reduce the number of people arrested each year and reduce violence.

"It'll breathe hope instead of despair in neighborhoods that are high in violence," he said.

Payne said he has already collected enough signatures — 78 — to secure a place on the ballot.

Petitioning candidates must file their signatures to the secretary of the state by Aug. 5.

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